VELOCITY OF IMPRESSIONS TRANSMITTED TO THE BRAIN.
Professor Helmholtz of Königsberg has, by the electro-magnetic method,[58] ascertained that the intelligence of an impression made upon the ends of the nerves in communication with the skin is transmitted to the brain with a velocity of about 195 feet per second. Arrived at the brain, about one-tenth of a second passes before the will is able to give the command to the nerves that certain muscles shall execute a certain motion, varying in persons and times. Finally, about 1/100th of a second passes after the receipt of the command before the muscle is in activity. In all, therefore, from the excitation of the sensitive nerves till the moving of the muscle, 1¼ to 2/10ths of a second are consumed. Intelligence from the great toe arrives about 1/30th of a second later than from the ear or the face.
Thus we see that the differences of time in the nervous impressions, which we are accustomed to regard as simultaneous, lie near our perception. We are taught by astronomy that, on account of the time taken to propagate light, we now see what has occurred in the fixed stars years ago; and that, owing to the time required for the transmission of sound, we hear after we see is a matter of daily experience. Happily the distances to be traversed by our sensuous perceptions before they reach the brain are so short that we do not observe their influence, and are therefore unprejudiced in our practical interest. With an ordinary whale the case is perhaps more dubious; for in all probability the animal does not feel a wound near its tail until a second after it has been inflicted, and requires another second to send the command to the tail to defend itself.